Review by Paul Towers, 8/9/25
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah
Moggach
Directed by Lynn Moore
Produced by Leicester Drama Society
At The Little Theatre til Saturday 13th September
2025
This is a stage production of the beloved
film and TV series by Deborah Moggach based on her novel These Foolish Things.
Taking inspiration from all the tales of
ex-pats moving to the Costa Brava this takes it one stage further as a group of
retirees up sticks and move to India. Their motivation is that it is warm and
cheap.
Some just want to bask in the sun and wait
for the inevitable end while others look upon it as a new adventure.
The Marigold Hotel is advertised as an exotic
retirement home in Jaipur. In reality it is a run down hotel on the verge of
both bankruptcy and collapse.
Heading up the cast is Alison Kisby as
Evelyn, a shy, diffident widow who doesn’t know how to emerge from the shadow
of her deceased husband. Alongside her is Helen
Gronhaug as serial divorcee Madge, a feisty blonde looking for a
maharajah to whisk her off her feet and keep her in the manner to which she
wants to be accustomed. Fellow travellers include Douglas (Richard Hill) and
his overbearing wife Jean (Rachel Draper), retired cleaner Muriel (Trish
Kenyon), opinionated Norman (Carolos Dandolo) and Dorothy (Katy Weaver) the
only one of the group with an ulterior motive for ending up at The Marigold. Each
have their own stories to tell, some happy, some sad but all thrown together in
this exotic mix of cultures in a strange land.
The issue of arranged marriages is met head
on with the conflicts between Sonny (Bhav Bhella) and his widowed mother Mrs
Kapoor (Ketna Butron). Sonny spends a lot of the time trying to pluck up the
courage to tell his mother he will marry for love to Sahani (Nisha Vegad).
Raj Brahmbhatt’s old factotum, Jimmy, leads
the ensemble of Tejal Purohit, Nikhil Raja and Yasin Mohammed who play various
roles
There are lots of laughs right from the start
as well as pointed digs at colonialism, poverty, the caste system, old age and
call centres! But at the heart of the story is how different people deal with
loss and aging in their own ways.
Pics: Jonathan Pryke
https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/
https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/
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